Retrospective of 2015 murals and other painted street art

This image gallery brings together 100 great murals and other painted street art pieces from 2015. It is not necessarily the best of the year because taste is a subjective thing and I was obviously not able to photograph everything. The selection was done partly from my own personal favourites but mostly from those of my followers on Instagram. Of course this list was put together from what I was actually able to photograph, so keep in mind that it may lack some great work that just slipped between the cracks.

The pieces are shown here in alphabetical order of artist/crew name. To ensure that the list wasn’t filled with only work from a few popular artists, I have set a maximum of 4 pieces per artist. Collaborations by two or more artists count as one entry.

Another one by Apok, this one at the abandoned Montreal Hippodrome. The fascinating thing about this artist, besides being obviously incredibly talented, is that he does figurative work but still operates in the usual graffiti spots. As far as I know most if not all of his street work so far has been done alongside that of graffiti artist Eskro (see Retrospective of 2015 graffiti).

Mural by Snikr on bird and Cens on letters, in a delivery/parking space completely redone last september by a bunch of great artists (from Montreal and elsewhere), an initiative of Turtle Caps. Scroll down for more by Cens under ‘Smoky’. Cens has also placed a piece in the Retrospective of 2015 graffiti. Also visible in this photo is a door by Labrona which incidentally also made it into this year-end list. Scroll down to Labrona below to see it in full size.

Crazy Apes’ contribution to the 2015 edition of the Under Pressure Festival part 1 featuring Narc and Lith

Crazy Apes’ contribution to the 2015 edition of the Under Pressure Festival part 2 featuring Korb and Narc

Crazy Apes’ contribution to the 2015 edition of the Under Pressure Festival part 3 featuring Kred, Akuma One and Narc

Crazy Apes’ contribution to the 2015 edition of the Under Pressure Festival part 4 featuring Crane, Korb and Fezat

Chris Dyer (left), his brother Peru143 (top right) and MSHL (bottom right). Chris’ part was started during the June Chromatic block party, and the whole thing was finished with Peru and MSHL a short while after.

Mateo‘s main creation this year is this huge mural titled ‘Más’ (‘More’) in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie. See a video of the making of this mural on Vimeo.

Mateo in Rosemont Petite-Patrie

Across the street from the huge mural by Mateo above in this list is this other by the same artist. Smaller in size (but still not small), it is titled ‘Menos’ (‘Less’) and acts as a counterpart to the big one.

Mateo mural in Petite-Patrie

Mateo also makes this year-end list with this mural in Petite-Patrie. Click on image to better appreciate the mural’s fine details.

This is one of the handful of pieces done by the very obscure but very talented Riode this year.

Riode in abandoned industrial building

One more by Riode.

Seth mural on Papineau for Mu

After having contributed one of the most memorable Mural Festival murals in 2014, Seth returned to Montreal to give us this splendid wall on Papineau.

Shalak in the Plateau

Whilst in town for some commissioned work, Shalak was invited by Turtle Caps to contribute to this delivery/parking space which was being completely redone by a bunch of great artists (from Montreal and elsewhere). This piece of hers is actually one of my very favourite creations of 2015.

Bruno Smoky in the Plateau

This brilliant piece by Bruno Smoky was done at about the same time as the one above it in this list by his Clandestinos partner Shalak.

This mindblowing mural by Stare in the Plateau was also the last mural to be completed in Montreal in 2015.

Stare mural between the Plateau and the Quartier des Spectacles

Before starting on the latter mural Stare also spent many weeks working on this masterpiece between the Plateau and the Quartier des Spectacles.

Graffiti mural by Stare in the Quartier des Spectacles

This was a very busy year for Stare. His first major wall of the year was this one near the Quartier des Spectacles.

Stare mural in Chinatown

This Chinatown mural by Stare features a great piece of deconstructed graffiti calligraphy. Stare is the ultimate urban artist, having placed 4 murals into this list as well as 4 pieces into the Retrospective of 2015 graffiti.

Tava took a break from doing street art in 2015 but still accepted a few commissioned door pieces, like the three ones found in this year-end list. This particular one was done in the Plateau with the help of Detto.

This Waxhead mural can be found in a back alley between the Plateau and the McGill ghetto. Scroll up to El Moot Moot above in this list for a collaboration with Waxhead. Waxhead has also placed work into the Retrospective of 2015 pasted street art.

Gawd (top) and Waxhead (bottom) in Plateau End

The front window space of this Plateau End house gets redone by Waxhead 2 or 3 times a year. This is one of the 2015 creations. You can see the evolution of this house by clicking on the latter link which will bring you to the Waxhead wall2wallMTL spotlight. The piece above the door and window is an older one by Gawd.